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nghia's review
1.0
I saw this mentioned somewhere as a "story of what happens after the happily ever after".
It is very fairy-tale-ish: there's a dark forest, a curse on the land, a haunted castle, a king's reward, and the everyday peasant who breaks the curse and gets to ask anything he wants from the king.
Naturally, he asks to marry the princess and they live happily ever after, right?
All that is really just set up: the real story comes after that. It is a clever idea but...the intro just drags on too long. It takes up nearly 20% of this already quite brief book. And I felt like, okay, I get it, he breaks the curse. He's not even especially clever or brave or anything. (To some extent that's the point of the book, he's Nobody's Son, nothing special really.) I mean, he's clever enough but mostly he succeeds because he's able to learn from the dozens who failed before him.
But instead of taking off once he asks for the princess's hand, the book just continues to plod along. The main thing holding it back is that everything is just the tropeyist trope ever.
Princess who longs for freedom, to see the world? Yep, seen that a few hundred times previously.
The commoner who doesn't care about appearances ("He'd never given a tinker's damn about his clothes— until now.") and just wants to the help as friends and not servants? Surely you remember that plotline from Downton Abbey as well as 1,000 other books and movies.
It's all just so very....see it a million times before.
I made it 65% of the way through the book before deciding I just really didn't care and put it down.
Finally, there's a weird stylistic choice of trying to (sometimes) make the characters speak in some weird quasi-archaic dialect.
It just didn't really work, especially because sometimes they sound like pretty modern people in their conversations.
It is very fairy-tale-ish: there's a dark forest, a curse on the land, a haunted castle, a king's reward, and the everyday peasant who breaks the curse and gets to ask anything he wants from the king.
Naturally, he asks to marry the princess and they live happily ever after, right?
All that is really just set up: the real story comes after that. It is a clever idea but...the intro just drags on too long. It takes up nearly 20% of this already quite brief book. And I felt like, okay, I get it, he breaks the curse. He's not even especially clever or brave or anything. (To some extent that's the point of the book, he's Nobody's Son, nothing special really.) I mean, he's clever enough but mostly he succeeds because he's able to learn from the dozens who failed before him.
But instead of taking off once he asks for the princess's hand, the book just continues to plod along. The main thing holding it back is that everything is just the tropeyist trope ever.
Princess who longs for freedom, to see the world? Yep, seen that a few hundred times previously.
"Well I'm sick of all these rules," Mark said. "I'd rather have a friend than a servant, and that goes down to my last man in livery too."
The commoner who doesn't care about appearances ("He'd never given a tinker's damn about his clothes— until now.") and just wants to the help as friends and not servants? Surely you remember that plotline from Downton Abbey as well as 1,000 other books and movies.
It's all just so very....see it a million times before.
I made it 65% of the way through the book before deciding I just really didn't care and put it down.
Finally, there's a weird stylistic choice of trying to (sometimes) make the characters speak in some weird quasi-archaic dialect.
You're in ower your head, lad.
It just didn't really work, especially because sometimes they sound like pretty modern people in their conversations.
msjb22's review
2.0
It got better towards the end, but the rather random sections written in an unidentifiable dialect made it very hard to read at times. I did like the basic idea and the plot, it just could have been even better with a more fluent writing style.
cindywho's review
3.0
This one is lighter than any other Stewart I've read - categorized as YA whether intentional or not. A fairy tale that doesn't end with the hero winning the princess - it continues with more adventure and a likable coming of age story. (May 03, 2006)
wealhtheow's review
4.0
Loved the nuanced, interesting characters. Character development=excellent! Loved the magic system. Loved the dialog, which hearkened back to a yeoman-era, but never felt artificial.
Will review more fully when/if I have time.
Will review more fully when/if I have time.
kristi_asleep_dreaming's review
3.0
After happily ever after, what then?
I loved the dialects, the voices of the characters...... The way Mark was always clearly a yokel, but an intelligent yokel.
The search for God puzzled me. He took it up abruptly, then abandoned it when he met the Old Man. Or was that part of his search for a father-figure? Looking for god as some supernatural stand-by-my-side daddy, turned aside for an actually present man, then finally he realized he could stop searching. He had himself and friends and a wife, and that was enough.
I like that interpretation. Enough that I'm almost afraid to reread and find out if it's correct. Probably will look, though.
I loved the dialects, the voices of the characters...... The way Mark was always clearly a yokel, but an intelligent yokel.
The search for God puzzled me. He took it up abruptly, then abandoned it when he met the Old Man. Or was that part of his search for a father-figure? Looking for god as some supernatural stand-by-my-side daddy, turned aside for an actually present man, then finally he realized he could stop searching. He had himself and friends and a wife, and that was enough.
I like that interpretation. Enough that I'm almost afraid to reread and find out if it's correct. Probably will look, though.
tyrshand's review
5.0
On re-read, this book was just as wonderful as it was the first time I read it. In some ways it feels like a precursor to the grim and "real" fantasy that is so popular today. However, the grit of real life that exists within the story does not make the tale all grim and dark. Rather, it takes more realistic paths from fairy tale tropes to create a story that resonates deep inside me.
emilesnyder's review
4.0
This was a re-read with the 11yo. It's an interesting one still; lots of psychological stuff going on. Feel's a bit men's-movement-y; lots of focus on father/son relationship issues.
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